1. Field
An automotive combination switch having a housing including a stork switch, such as a headlight switch or a wiper switch, in which an automotive steering shaft passes through the housing is provided. In particular, the invention relates to a combination structure of the stork switch and the housing.
2. Related Art
In a conventional automotive combination switch, a housing having an opening through which a steering shaft passes is fixed to a stator of a car body, such as a column cover, a stork switch is provided to the left and right of the housing. Headlights, turn signals, or wipers are switched on/off by the stork switch. The housing, for example, is formed to have an inverted-U-shaped cross section consisting of a top plate and a pair of side walls and the opening is formed at the center of the top plate and a steering shaft passes through the opening. A switch box of the stork switch is inserted into the housing and fixed therein using a fixing means such as snap-fitting or threaded fastening (for example, JP-A-2003-132753 (3 and 4 pages, FIG. 1)). The switch box of the stork switch has a manipulating rod protruding from the switch box, and the above-mentioned several automotive parts are switched on/off by turning the manipulating rod in two directions.
In assembling the automotive combination switch, the stork switch is snap-fitted into the housing. This improves the assembling work efficiency and is increasingly improved as compared to the case of using screws to fix it. In the combined configuration of the stork switch by the snap-fitting, locking holes are generally formed on the walls of the housing and L-shaped snaps protrude from the outsides of the walls of the switch box corresponding to the housing's walls. When the switch box is inserted into the housing at a predetermined distance, the snap of the switch box is locked into the locking hole of the housing and a claw of the snap is locked, that is, snap-fitted to a periphery of the locking hole. Accordingly, the switch box is positioned in the housing and held in place.
The above-mentioned combined configuration that has a switch box of a stork switch and is snap-fitted into a housing is designed to lock the snap in the locking hole of the housing when the switch box is inserted into the housing at a predetermined distance. However, a clearance is required between the claw of the snap and the locking hole for smooth and inexpensive snap-fitting. In a case where a clearance is not defined between the claw of the snap and the locking hole involved, unless dimensional accuracy of each part is strictly maintained and the stork switch is carefully inserted into the housing, snap-fitting is difficult. As a result, the cost of the parts and the assembly greatly increases, thus resulting in an expensive combination switch. However, in the case of snap-fitting the stork switch in the housing in disregard of the rising cost, the stork switch still has a problem of rattling because the clearance between the claw of the snap and the locking hole causes it (switch box) to rattle after being combined in the housing.